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Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Present is a foreign country: Inside a Myanmar scam call center compound: sex, drugs, forced labor

 Inside a Myanmar scam call center compound: sex, drugs, forced labor


Another troubling story about a fraud victim.  As I’ve previously reported, 74 year old Ann Mayer was arrested for trying to rob a credit union in a Cincinnati suburb recently. She had a gun, had taken the license plates off of her car, and had mentioned robbing a bank to family members recently.  She was arrested and charged.  She had no criminal record.  She got $500.
 
Family members say she was a scam victim herself, and had been sending money to an “unidentified individual.”  News articles also say that she’d lost tens of thousands of dollars; others say she lost her life savings.
 
But we don’t know anything about the scam.  Was this a romance fraud?  Did the scammer encourage the robbery?  Have they tried to track down the scammer?
 
Police in Bosnia, Lebanon, Albania, Kosovo shut down 12 scam call centers, arrest 21; scammers were doing romance scams, investment fraud, and fake police calls
 
Investigation finds Chinese operation has created at least 76,000 websites for designer goods; 800,000 victims in the US and Europe; victims don’t get counterfeits, instead get nothing or something wholly different
 
Wired:  Nigerian Yahoo boys on the internet often don’t even try to hide; have 16 Facebook groups with 200,000 members; a dozen Youtube channels, more

India busts 76 tech support operations across the country, work with Microsoft and Amazon

Iowa: Three arrested for impersonating police and sheriffs deputies, telling people that they had to pay or they would be arrested; met victims in person

US sends cybercrime advisor to Nigeria, and country adopts the 2022 international cybercrime convention
 

Fraud Studies: Here are links to the studies I’ve written for the Better Business Bureau: puppy fraudromance fraud; BEC fraudsweepstakes/lottery fraud,  tech support fraudromance fraud money mulescrooked movers, government impostersonline vehicle sale scamsrental fraud, gift cards,  free trial offer frauds,  job scams,  online shopping fraud,  fake check fraud and crypto scams
 
Fraud News Around the world

Humor 

FTC and CFPB

Virus Benefit Theft 

Kidnapping and forced to scam

Business Email compromise fraud 

Ransomware and data breaches

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency  

ATM Skimming

Romance Fraud and Sextortion